Technical Breeding Tips and Advice

[Tad Carlucci]

In the above I used a father Bengal Sorrel hiding Seal Lynx, or better.

Often, Charm will purchase a box like this and turn to me asking, since she has no Seal Lynx, what she should breed it to. I turn to Saga's charts.

First, I ask Charm is she has any Flame Lynx, Ebony Silver, or Cream Lynx. Of course not! Drat. That would make life SO much easier.

So, time for a fallback. Her first reaction is often to start at the bottom and work up. She has a Oci Blue and that'll pick up (hide) the Seal Lynx. But that Oci Blue probably has better things to be doing .. like making MORE Oci Blue!

I, on the other hand, believe you should always allow room for abject failure. You all KNOW how you absolutely NEED a Girl and, box after box, all you get is a Boy? Well, don't paint yourselves into a corner. Leave room for failure!

So, there's that lousy Cream Tabby rescue kitty. That's PURR-fect! It's more recessive than Bengal Sorrel, and there's a LOT more recessive stuff below it. So, I tell her to use that lousy Cream Tabby and jump for joy if she gets Cream Tabby (or better).

Often, she will. But sometimes they're all BOYS! (Oh MAN! Not AGAIN!)

Cream Tabby to the RESCUE!

All those boys are "Cream Tabby hiding Seal Lynx, or better". So even though her "Bengal Sorrel hiding Seal Lynx, or better" just aged out she can try again! All she needs is a girl more recessive than Cream Tabby.

If she'd have gone with her first instinct and used her Oci Blue, she'd be forced to use something more dominant than Oci Blue .. and would have no way of telling which boxes at that second generation carry Oci Blue and which carry Seal Lynx. She's facing 50/50 odds not only of never producing Seal Lynx, but of totally and utterly failing by completely losing that Seal Lynx gene altogether .. never to be seen again!

So, think about it .. when she gets a BOY (darn!) she can immediately birth it and find a girl more recessive than Cream Tabby. Suddenly she has TWO lines cooking to get a Girl hiding Seal Lynx to breed back and expose that Seal Lynx. For a couple weeks, things are cooking twice as fast. Then three times, four, ... eight until she finally gets some girls.

But then, don't tear down all those lines .. get more girls! Each time you do, switch her in with a boy hiding Seal Lynx. It won't be long before she has four or more lines where both mom and dad hide Seal Lynx .. that's FOUR (or more) dips into the 1-in-4-odds well, per week. Odds are, within a week or two she'll have her first Seal Lynx showing, and can start swapping out "hiding" for showing .. upping her odds to 1-in-2-per-dip-in-the-well until she's got Seal Lynx girls going with Seal Lynx boys and is cranking out Seal Lynx with 1-in-1 odds!

You all wondered how come some breeders seem to be able to crank out "new" stuff so quickly while most of you are struggling. Now you know. All it takes is a little planning, and the funds to feed 'em all! (The Cattery eliminates prim costs .. USE IT! .. it will save you a fortune when you're cranking 8 lines looking to finally get those "showing" offspring.)

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One more tip, then I'm back to counting (other-breedable) offspring .. no explanation, just pointing at the above ..

ALTs are Good Things!